JUST MUSIC? NO, THAT'S IRELAND

Have you ever seen a nation having a musical instruments as national symbol? 

That's Ireland!

Music in Ireland gives you  a heart-warming feeling. It's  an unconscious way you can understand and feel Ireland.

It would be really difficult to imagine Ireland without music: because here it isn’t only music as such,  it is one of the Essentials of the Irish culture.

In the past, music was  the way to keep alive Irish stories and traditions that were mostly oral ... as all the ancestral cultures.

Nowadays,  music is always present in  Irish modern life; 

in all the pubs, in the streets … music is a continuous and modern reminder of what Irish had been in the past … (click the link below)




http://www.youtube.com/user/gennaronasti#p/a/u/1/9AKeI6WTs9Y

Is there anyone who hs visited Dublin and doesn’t know Grafton Street and his musicians? (click the link below)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U4fbBxxCWY

Do you want more? 

Here a list of Pubs with the best Irish music!!!!

All began with a … voice … the voice is the oldest instrument in all ancestral cultures … like  the voice of “Seosamh Ó hÉanaí”

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=SHMEuQrpB4Q&playnext=1&videos=EutCSmdgAa8

This is a song in the SEAN NÓS, a gaelic form that means old way .. in his voice you can see the fisherman, the Irish diaspora … like the Neapolitan Diaspora 

Almost as old as the voice is the Irish harp, in fact the Celtic harp music has been an important emblem of Irish nationalism since the 10th Century.  

But after the Anglo-Normans´ conquest, the harp as a folk and court instrument was suppressed to prevent a resurgence of nationalism.  Harps were burnt and harpers executed.

Turlough Carolan was the last of a long list Irish harper-composer ... He died in 1738 ...

But I’ve found two examples of this old art:  one in the long room of the Trinity College .....

And another near Suffolk street  ... Still alive and very bohemian (click the link below)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfBi_q-4Mp8

Some selected Irish/English languages schools, like Alpha College ;-), are  still teaching the origins (click the link below)

http://www.youtube.com/user/gennaronasti#p/a/u/0/TZdXLuk35DM

and the new trends off Irish music. (click the link below)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFOPlrl_lpI

ROAR TO BE A KING?

Is not usual to visit a place where Kings were born, and much more if they are Irish Kings ;-) and this magic place is Temair na Rí, the Hill of the Kings, the Hills of Tara.

According to legend, 142 kings have reigned there in prehistoric and historic times. In ancient Irish religion and mythology Temair was the sacred place of dwelling for the gods, and was the entrance to the otherworld.

But despite the rich narratives derived from mythologies, Tara was not so much a true seat of kings, but a sacral site associated with kings and spiritual rituals. Early in the 20th century a group of Israelites came to Tara with the conviction that the Arc of the Covenant had been buried  on the famous hill. They dug the Mound of the Synods in search of the Arc but found only some Roman coins Unfortunately, the digging  damaged the spyrals area.

It is probably a pre-Celtic area and the monuments and buildings are dating back to the Neolithic period around 5,000 years ago. 

One of these structures, the Moud of the Hostages, is a megalithic 'passage tomb' and it has a short passage which is aligned with sunset.

On the top of the hill stands a peculiar stone, an evident symbol of fertility but a  legend says that was the Irish LIA FAIL: the stone of destiny. On the LIA FAIL the High Kings of Ireland were crowned; legends suggest that the stone was required to roar three times if the chosen one was a true king … 

It was moved to its current site after the Battle of Tara during the Irish revolution of 1798 to mark the graves of 400 Irish patriots who died here.

Gleann Dá Loch ...

Gleann Dá Loch, is an Irish name that means “The valley of Two Lakes" but is almost an onomatopoeia that suggests something ancestral like a druids ritual …

Gleann

Dá

Loch

It's an enchanted place, one of my favourite places in Ireland, so far…

that combines a magic natural beauty and amazing monastic ruins.

And as always, monks chose an amazing place to live and pray, but this place is simply awesome …

In my opinion It’s the true essence of the Irish Soul.

When you start thinking about green Ireland....you are thinking without any doubt about Glendalough, in Wicklow!!!

In this case the monk who chose the location was a hermitic priest called St. Kevin who founded the monastery in the VI Century.

Glendalough became one of the most important Irish Monastic Foundations, despite the continuous attacks: Vikings, Anglo-Normans …

The defence and the attacks prevention was essential and the Monastery was walled and had a very high tower, about 30 metre high, that was used mainly as landmarks for approaching ...

but at the end it was destroyed by the Anglo-Normans in 1214.

But not only the Vikings and the Brits attacked the monastery, also the Celtic Irish did, and a lot of times …

for the same reason: money and power and maybe some … good food.

But now the Irish only remember how cruel the Vikings were …

The day I visited Glendalough was a full Irish experience...

not only for the 4 Pints that I had at the end of day but mainly for the RAIN!

It was raining cats and dogs, up to a point that I didn’t know if we were walking or we were swimming.

But despite at the rain

the experience was M A G I C …

it was as magic as wet!

Why HIBERNIA?

My idea was to use a simple name to underline two very important concepts for the blog: where I am now... and also where I come from ....

The first is about the land that is currently hosting me ... HIBERNIA ... "THE LAND OF WINTER"; how the old Romans called the wintry and rainy IRELAND ... once they arrived to the Northern Lands of Europe from the warm and sunny Italian and Spanish peninsula.

The second is about me ... because like the old Romans, I also arrived here on the same Spanish and Italian route. It's about the way I am, about my origins: Naples, Spain, the Mediterranean ... the way I see and present Ireland: its landscape, its history, its culture, its music and pubs, allways with a pint of Guiness in my hand...